The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 by Edmund Spenser
page 84 of 440 (19%)
page 84 of 440 (19%)
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"Ne feard the burning waves of Phlegeton,
Nor those same mournfull kingdomes, compassed With rustle horrour and fowle fashion; And deep digd vawtes*; and Tartar covered With bloodie night and darke confusion; 445 And iudgement seates, whose iudge is deadlie dred, A iudge that after death doth punish sore The faults which life hath trespassed before. [* _Vawtes_, vaults.] "But valiant fortune made Dan Orpheus bolde: For the swift running rivers still did stand, 450 And the wilde beasts their furie did withhold, To follow Orpheus musicke through the land: And th'okes, deep grounded in the earthly molde, Did move, as if they could him understand; 454 And the shrill woods, which were of sense bereav'd, Through their hard barke his silver sound receav'd. "And eke the Moone her hastie steedes did stay, Drawing in teemes along the starrie skie; And didst, O monthly Virgin, thou delay Thy nightly course, to heare his melodie? 460 The same was able, with like lovely lay, The Queene of Hell to move as easily To yeeld Eurydiee unto her fere, Backe to be borne, though it unlawfull were. "She, ladie, having well before approoved 465 The feends to be too cruell and severe, |
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